Google acquires AdMob for $750 million

Google has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire AdMob, a mobile display advertising company based in California, in an attempt to cash in on the rapidly growing number of people who access the Internet as well as connected services and widgets on their phones.

In a blog post, the internet giant says: "AdMob is a great Silicon Valley story - founded in 2006 by Omar Hamoui when he couldn't find good ways to generate traffic for his mobile site. Over the past few years, Omar and his talented team have built a thriving company with great mobile advertising products, and we are looking forward to having them join the Google team and work with us on the future of mobile advertising".

Stating that "despite the tremendous growth in mobile usage and the substantial investment by many businesses in the space, the mobile web is still in its early stages", Google says it thinks that "great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem".

Although Google currently offers mobile advertising solutions it says its focus to date has been on mobile versions of its search ads. This differs from AdMob's focus that has been mobile display ads and in-application ads, the potential of which for the Android platform will be lost on no-one.

In honour of the deal, Google has set-up a site that explains the $750 million acquisition and the types of mobile advertising available.